It’s no secret that the fractional aircraft industry has limped along during the Great Recession and following anemic recovery period, but one provider—Clearwater, Florida-based Avantair—has seemed to defy gravity.

Once upon a time, the vast majority of business jets were owned and operated in the U.S., but that’s changing. Residents of other countries represent an ever-growing segment of the market, and the business of buying and selling corporate jets is increasingly international. In fact, a majority of factory-new aircraft these days are delivered outside the U.S.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Sebonack Golf Club in historic Southampton, New York, is that the site was available. Good luck finding an undeveloped property as stunning as this 300-acre, partially wooded dunescape along a bluff overlooking Great Peconic Bay on Long Island’s South Shore.

Dagmar Grossmann’s first experience of what was then Czechoslovakia was anything but an auspicious prelude to her subsequent emergence as a private aviation pioneer in that country. It was 1967, the year before the so-called Prague Spring and revolution was in the air.

In today’s world, it’s less unusual for a top celebrity to own a jet than to fly commercially. That was far from the case only a few decades ago, however. Here’s a look at some of the luminaries who pioneered the use of private aviation.
Frank Sinatra

Creating a more comfortable cabin is a never-ending goal for the builders of business and private jets and their suppliers. Seats have been redesigned so the passenger no longer slides forward when they’re reclined. Carpet makers have created new designs in blends of silk and wool that entice the passenger to walk barefoot.